Update 5/5/2013: I have removed the content of this original blog post as the article has been refined and published for the popular Christian magazine, Relevant Magazine. A link to the article can be found through the link below. It is out just in time for Kierkegaard’s 200th birthday (today). I much appreciate all the …
Category Archives: Kierkegaard
God is Love
The titular line is no mere simple statement. It suggests the essence of reality. People use this phrase flippantly, yet it constitutes the most meaningful relationship in existence. I have been reading through Sylvia Walsh’s book, Kierkegaard: Thinking Christianly in an Existential Mode. She examines Kierkegaard’s enamor with the subjective interaction with God and theology …
“In These Times Politics is Everything”
In the preface to The Single Individual, Soren Kierkegaard utters a statement not only relevant to his immediate circumstances, but one that transcends the immediacy of 1800s Denmark: “In these times politics is everything.” Denmark was in a transition from absolute monarchy to parliamentary monarchy – a radical change of political system. Kierkegaard was not …
The Subjectivity of Objective Truth
Countless hours have been spent searching for, arguing for, and defending objective truth. I believe in objective truth, and in some capacity, objective truth can be known. I believe God to be an objective truth. He can be known by me, and by anyone else, not through mere objectivity, but a subjective search of this …
Identity, The Self, & Conversion
Trans – Prefix, denotes moving beyond a certain state or object. Identity – The fact of Being; the substance of what something is. As an existential philosopher I am immediately concerned with the development of the Self. The Self, following Kierkegaard, is a created Being, one which Becomes and fulfills its existential desires. Yet the …
Remorse: The Sincere and Faithful Friend
People are quick to ask for forgiveness of a wrong that they have done (or perhaps, have not done). There is, of course, nothing wrong with such a thing. From a Christian standpoint, the concept of forgiveness is intrinsic to not only commands given to individuals, but also to the very method of salvation that …
Kierkegaard and the Contradictory Incarnation
Many attack Kierkegaard for saying that the incarnation is a contradiction and that Kierkegaard embraces paradox by faith alone. I wish here to argue that these things are wildly misunderstood and Kierkegaard’s view of the incarnation is neither heretical nor absurd, but rather a stance that ought to be taken seriously. In Philosophical Fragments, Kierkegaard …
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Faith and Uncertainty
There are certain things we know. We know that the planet is round. We know that 2 + 2 = 4. We know that gravity prohibits us from floating off the ground and into Earth’s atmosphere. This knowledge is grounded on facts, scientific or logical facts, about reality and the way it operates. We also …
Bonhoeffer, Pacifism, and Suspending the Ethical
Many know that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my personal heroes and one to whom I seek guidance from in issues of ethics. Bonhoeffer is one of the reasons I adhere to the pacifist movement. Many have wondered how Bonhoeffer was able to reconcile his position on nonviolence to his choice to involve himself in …
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Former Aspiring Philosopher 